Wood insert efficency??

[johnnywarm]

Does anybody know the efficiency rate for a good wood burning insert?they say my pellet stove is 81%.

Thank you john

 

[yurij]

72% for the VC Sequoia. It is a Cat
65% for the BIS Tradition/Lennox Montecito Estate (non-cat)
Both of these numbers are the minimum required by the EPA. But what you actually get from real use is not clear., other than its alot better than the ancient ones.

 

[burntime]

regency and other non cat stoves are in the 70's. Remember with wood you can scrounge it too...pellets stoves make you a captive audience. Good luck.

 

[begreen]

In general you can use the emissions certification as a rough guide. A cleaner burning stove should be more efficient, but I don't think the numbers are directly related. For example, the Quad 3100i is certified at 1.26gm/hr and is rated at 78% efficient. But the 4100i is rated at 3.1 gm/hr and they say is 76% efficient.

But then there is how well the stove recovers heat and returns it to the room instead of up the chimney. Can someone tell how that is tested? Corie?

 

[johnnywarm]

Remember with wood you can scrounge it too...pellets stoves make you a captive audience. .

Its like i said to my neighbour with 5 cords in his backyard, i said you will need to sit out here all winter with a gun to protect your "outside" cords of wood if oil goes to 5 bucks a gallon LOLOLOL


But i do get your point. i'm looking to add an insert to my fireplace and i'm not sure the way i want to go. i have pellet stove now in the cellar. the wood burners are less complicated and cost less to run but will i still get the efficiency of the pellets?

 

[johnnywarm]

In general you can use the emissions certification as a rough guide. A cleaner burning stove should be more efficient, but I don't think the numbers are directly related. For example, the Quad 3100i is certified at 1.26gm/hr and is rated at 78% efficient. But the 4100i is rated at 3.1 gm/hr and they say is 76% efficient.

But then there is how well the stove recovers heat and returns it to the room instead of up the chimney. Can someone tell how that is tested? Corie?

Hi Begreen

The 78% sounds nice. I will look hard at that stove.

John

 

[johnnywarm]

[quote author="BeGreen" date="1196294970"] 1.quote]


Does the quad insert only come "arched"?

 

[TMonter]

But then there is how well the stove recovers heat and returns it to the room instead of up the chimney. Can someone tell how that is tested? Corie?

Combustion Worksheet

Second page outlines how efficiency is calculated.

Basically it calculates the heating value of the wood and the moisture content of the wood being burned, looks at stack temperature and calculates efficiency based on those values.

 

[Mike Wilson]

I have heard that a PE insert is about 126% efficient, 131% if you get the one in Whorehouse Red...

-- Mike

 

[johnnywarm]

What about the stove having a catalytic on it? is this going to be reacquired in the future?

 

[budman]

I have heard that a PE insert is about 126% efficient, 131% if you get the one in Whorehouse Red...

-- Mike

HaaaaaaaaaaaaBS :exclaim:

 

[begreen]

But then there is how well the stove recovers heat and returns it to the room instead of up the chimney. Can someone tell how that is tested? Corie?

Combustion Worksheet

Second page outlines how efficiency is calculated.

Basically it calculates the heating value of the wood and the moisture content of the wood being burned, looks at stack temperature and calculates efficiency based on those values.

Is that a direct indicator of how good a radiator or convector the stove is?

 

[burntime]

Regency was 77 percent and the door is less arched. Good luck. Also I think the mansfield was more boxed shaped if I remember right.

 

[johnnywarm]

Regency was 77 percent and the door is less arched. Good luck. Also I think the mansfield was more boxed shaped if I remember right.

Thank you My foreplace is square not arched.

 

[karl]

You're right Mike. I have to pull a few pieces of wood out of mine every morning. If we have a cold winter, I don't know where I'm going to stack the stuff. It's really piling up.

 

[TMonter]

Is that a direct indicator of how good a radiator or convector the stove is?

There are a lot of assumptions to me made but if the stove gases exiting are completely combusted, the stack temperature will indicate what percentage of the heat is entering the house provided the wood moisture and other factors are known.

 

[yurij]

I think there is a little more to efficiency here. My high-efficiency gas furnace (93% efficient) has an exhaust temperature low enough to call luke-warm. The furnace design extracts almost all the heat from the combustion and puts it into my house. I suppose the HE stove/fireplace designers could also extract almost all the heat out, but then the unit would not draft very well, or would require some kind of air assist, or look weird or whatever. Probably the temperature that needs to be measured to determine efficiency is somewhere inside the unit (like peak temperature), not at the eventual exhaust.

 

[Mike Wilson]

You're right Mike. I have to pull a few pieces of wood out of mine every morning. If we have a cold winter, I don't know where I'm going to stack the stuff. It's really piling up.

Yeah, that's why I went with the Jotul... after all, how much wood do you really need anyways?

-- Mike